1. Field of the Invention
The disclosures herein generally relate to an image forming apparatus and an image forming method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ink jet recording apparatuses, each of which discharges ink on a recording medium conveyed in a sub scanning direction from a recording head reciprocating in a main scanning direction perpendicular to the sub scanning direction and thereby forms an image, are widely used. A conventional ink jet recording apparatus forms an image on a recording medium by repeating an operation of scanning with a recording head in a state where a conveyance of the recording medium is stopped to form an image and an operation of conveying the recording medium by a predetermined amount in a state where the recording head is decelerated or stops.
In this way, in forming an image by reciprocatingly scanning with the recording head while intermittently conveying the recording medium, a mechanical impact sound occurring during an operation such as a conveyance of a recording medium or scanning of a recording head, especially at a start and an end of the operation, may become irritating noise.
Then, a printer that reduces motion sound while forming an image by conveying a recording medium always at a constant rate without stopping the recording of the recording medium during image formation and shortening an accelerating time and decelerating time in reciprocatingly scanning with the recording head is proposed (see, for example, Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2004-338215).
According the printer disclosed in Japanese Published Patent Application No. 2004-338215, the motion sound while forming an image is reduced and quietness is improved. However, a conveyance speed for the recording medium is restricted by a scanning speed for the recording head, so that the whole print region of the recording medium can be scanned with the recording head for forming an image.
For an ink jet recording apparatus, enhancement of productivity, not limited to single-sided printing or double-sided printing, as well as quietness is also required. However, according to the above-described noise restriction, it may be difficult to enhance the productivity by increasing the conveyance speed for a recording medium.